When I was a boy we had a neighbor, Bill Chambers, who lived in the house by our mailboxes at the base of the hill. Bill was a bachelor and a dairyman. He had a herd of Jersey cows that he milked twice a day. We lived a quarter of a mile to the east. We always knew when it was milking time because Bill would head for his barn lot and let out a loud "Whoo eee." The Jerseys might have been a quarter mile away, but they would come running when they heard that call.

When I grew up and had a cow herd of my own, I adopted Bill's method of gathering the cows. Whenever I'd pull into the field to feed them their hay, or whenever I wanted to take them to a new pasture, I'd let out a loud, falsetto, "Whoop." The cows always came running. They knew that call meant they were going to get fed or be taken to where the grass was greener.

Some cattlemen around here pasture their cattle in the mountains. The cattle are spread out over thousands of acres through the woods. Gathering them in the fall is always a big deal. Multiple riders on horseback search high and low for the cattle, and some are always missed and hard to find. Gathering all the cattle is a weeks'-long process. If they were my cattle they'd be gathered in a day.

There is another effective cattle call that I've used. Eddie Arnold was a famous singer. One of his songs was "The Cattle Call." As a kid I was singing it out in the field, and I noted that all the cattle came running.

When I was a 40- or 50-year-old man, a lady called me on the phone. She lived in Leona Hayhurst's house a mile west of Haines. She said that a couple of steers were on the road, and she didn't know who they belonged to. Ed and Janice Hayhurst weren't home, so she didn't know who else to call. I said that I'd come take a look.

In order to identify who the steers belonged to, I needed to know what the Hayhurst's brand was. Their steers were all on the far side of their pasture, and weren't about to let me get close enough to read their brands. So I started singing the cattle call, and headed toward their barn lot. The steers came running, went into the barn lot, and I was able to see that their brands were the same as the brands on the steers in the roadway.

As I went to the road to retrieve the escaped steers, the lady met me in the driveway. With awe in her voice she asked, "How did you do that!?"

It's a secret that every cattleman should learn. Roundups and branding time can be greatly simplified.

AARON'S EMAIL REPLY TO THE ABOVE ARTICLE:

When I was working for Sextons I would frequently need to move their cows as we rotated them through the different pastures. Dick Sexton had well-trained dogs that would round up the cows and push them through the gate when he moved the cows, but I didn’t have those advantages when I moved them. I started training the cows to come to the same whoop that you used, but at first they didn’t understand. Compounding the training problem was that about half the time Dick would move the cows instead of have me do it. He would also buy 900 yearlings each summer, to graze and sell in the fall, that came in batches that always needed taught to come to the call. Consequently, whooping only rarely worked. When I was on my own and no one was around I used Matt’s technique of lying on the ground near the gate, and every few seconds bellowing and flopping around before lying still again. That would draw the cows from all over the field more efficiently than Dick’s dogs could bring them. Then bellowing and flopping through the gate they would all come pouring through.

When I was called to be the scout master in Pilot Rock, I only had two rules on our monthly campouts. They had to have a buddy wherever they went, and if they heard me whoop they needed to come right away. It worked great. I took to calling the kids the same way. At the state track meet, Samuel had gone with the team on the bus, and Tia and I had come later. We had something we needed to give to him, but at the stake track meet only contestants are allowed on the field. We took our seats in the stands and I located Samuel warming up in the field. It was noisy. There were constant cheers and yelling as there were several events going on at all times. I whooped, and Samuel’s head whipped around knowing who that sound came from. Then it was easy to gesture him over to us.

At all the kids' sports ventures, I took to whooping when my kids did something good as they would then be able to distinguish my cheers from everyone else's.

I’ve even used it occasionally in stores like Walmart to locate my kids. I think they are less appreciative when I use it in those circumstances, though.

I also use it to call my cows, which is nice when they get out, or when one has been in with the neighbor's herd to spend time with his bull. I can easily separate my cow from all of his by whooping.

I’ve got a lot of mileage out of your whoop. The only problem is if I whoop while the kids are playing outside, no one knows if I need them on the double, if I’m praising them in their play, if it’s time for dinner, if I’m about to milk the cow, or if I’m changing pastures.

Aaron